Sayonara, Yokohama

Though we ate at Yokohama Ramen over a year ago, I'm only writing about it now because it was an eating experience I'd rather forget. I've had good eats and bad eats and this one definitely fell under bad.

Yokohama was a small noodle house in a nondescript mini mall on Gateway. When we dropped by one afternoon on the way to Best Buy, the restaurant looked okay enough at first glance. It was clean and bright, with a spattering of Asian customers which usually tells me the food is good. However, things went downhill as soon as we sat down.

For starters, the menu was one of those oily laminated deals; I ignored it in the hopes it was a minor slip and that the food would more than make up for it. They had twenty different kinds of ramen that looked promising, in prices that ranged from $5.50 to $7. I ordered the Yokohama ("Noodles in soy sauce flavored broth topped with seafood, barbecued pork and vegetables") and D. ordered the Chanpon ("noodles in a special flavored broth topped with seafood and vegetables").

Our orders arrived in huge steaming bowls, but didn't have that savory fragrance most ramen have. Sure enough, the broth was like dishwater, the superthin pork slices were bland and far between, and the "seafood" which was mainly squid was tough and rubbery. The vegetables were mostly cabbage and canned bamboo shoots that gave the soup an unpleasant pungent aftertaste. Just horrid, and we're not the only one who thought so.

I wasn't surprised to learn from Chowhound that Yokohama closed down last February. Apparently, it was a good ramen house until a change of ownership last year, which proves again that trying to make a quick buck by slapping a good reputation on bad food never works.

Label(s): Food

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